Light intensity and FOV-controlled adaptive fluidic iris.

In this paper, we propose a light intensity and field of view (FOV) controlled adaptive fluidic iris. A 90° twisted-nematic liquid crystal (TNLC) cell and two orthogonal polarizers are attached on the substrate. When a voltage is applied to TNLC, it can change the phase of the incident light, leading to change in the light intensity. A black mask is then placed in the middle of the chamber; when changing the hydraulic pressure from the inlet and outlet, the black mask can move within the chamber. It is equivalent to changing the iris position along the optical axis. The iris, therefore, can control the FOV in an optical system. The experiments show that the device can control the light intensity from 100% to 0% by applying a voltage of 9 V on the TNLC cell. The proposed device can be applied in imaging systems and optical attenuators.